Hiding Fears
by justforfunstories
Summary: 'Why can't I accept that Mr Peabody didn't die' Sherman confronts a reoccurring nightmare each time he closes his eyes at night, which leaves him scarred. How long will he be able to hide his fears?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! Recently, I have grown a certain interest into the movie 'Mr Peabody and Sherman.' Upon watching the movie again today, I decided to write a story. Hopefully parts won't be too sad!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own 'Mr Peabody and Sherman.'**

 **Oh, and sorry about the shocking line breaks, I'm writing this on my iPad!**

It was then that the wooden structure fell off the tall cliff, ending with a sickening 'crash.' Looking over the edge, Sherman's orange-brown eyes darted back and forth, in hopes to find Mr Peabody. Upon finding no signs of the snow white beagle, his eyes began rimming with tears. He wiped at his eyes furiously as he tried yelling his name, but to no avail. "Dad!" the young boy yelled towards the dismantled wooden horse, which received no answer. Sobs wracked the seven year olds body, making his shoulders shake in guilt and depression.

Sherman awoke with a sudden jolt, his breathing heavier than usual. He felt the soft covers of his bed, and realised it was all a nightmare. ' _Four nights in a row_ ,' Sherman thought. ' _Why can't I accept that Mr Peabody didn't die?_ '

He laid his head back onto the high profile pillow, but couldn't fall back asleep. The images flashed through his mind, repeating themselves in a movie-like way. There was no way Sherman could fall asleep now, not when the nightmare was etched into his brain so vividly.

It was almost three in the morning when Sherman finally managed to fall asleep again, his mind still showing the 'death' of his father.

 **(LINE BREAK)**

"BEEP!" the alarm clock blared into Mr Peabody's ears, signalling that it was 6 o'clock. After dragging himself out from his bedroom, Peabody walked into the kitchen and began cooking his and Sherman's breakfast.

Just as a stack of pancakes had been completed, Peabody heard the shuffling footsteps of his son becoming louder. "Good morning Sherman," Peabody greeted whilst picking up the stacked plate and moving it over to the dining table. "Did you have a nice sleep."

"Uh...yeah," Sherman replied hesitantly, before producing a loud yawn. "Just t...tired," he added, still yawning.

"And why might that be so?" Peabody looked up from where he placed the stacked pancakes and towards Sherman, noticing the bags under his eyes. _'Hmm...he's been looking quite tired for a couple days now. Maybe something's wrong?_ ' Peabody thought.

"Ehh, I don't know," Sherman shrugged, even though he knew why he was tired. His thoughts flashed towards the images from his nightmare, taunting him, scarring him. His shook his head in hopes of clearing the thoughts, and looked at the plateful of pancakes that had been laid out for him.

"Hmm..." Peabody began before he bit his tongue. ' _You're just over thinking it Peabody..._ ' He picked up the daily newspaper that was located on one of the kitchen benches before opening it as he sat down. "Well, eat up, Sherman, you don't have long until school starts."

Halfway through the plateful of pancakes, Sherman looked over to Peabody, slightly reading a back of the newspaper in his fathers' paws. "This is pretty fantastic!" he cried out in delight, his mouth stuffed by the light and fluffy pancakes.

Glancing up from the newspaper, Peabody looked at Sherman, his eyes meeting the boys orangey-brown eyes for a moment, before raising and eyebrow. "That's good that you enjoy them, Sherman," he spoke while his mouth changed into a smirk. "Perhaps you shouldn't talk with your mouthful," Peabody suggested through a small chuckle, looking at the small pieces of pancakes falling out from Sherman's mouth.

"Oh yeah, sorry!"

Once Sherman had 'cleaned' the plate (more like licked it clean), he washed it under the kitchen tap, before placing it in the dishwasher. He made his way over to the bathroom closest to his room, grabbing his school clothes along the way.

 **(LINE BREAK)**

"Don't forget that I have a meeting, so you'll be going home with Penny!" Peabody called out over the radiating sounds of traffic.

"Yes, Mr Peabody!" Sherman also called out, although not in his most cheerful tone that he would normally use in such situations.

The two arrived at the school in the scarlet red scooter at the same time that they usually got there each morning. "I love you, Sherman," Peabody said quietly, still only just becoming used to the words that he avoided for years.

"I love you, Mr Peabody," Sherman returned with a hug, making Peabody's tail wag, before departing off into the tall doors for the day, with only a slight smile on his face, which dropped as soon as he was out of eye reach of Peabody. His mind wavered off to the thought of Mr Peabody inside the destroyed wooden horse, his body laying lifeless on the splintered ground. _'I hate nightmares...'_ he thought as he walked into the hallway.

 **Thank-you for reading this chapter. Please leave a review or dm me, I would really appreciate that!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi all! Sorry for the late update, I have been super busy lately, but I finally got to writing another chapter! Yay!**

 **For this chapter, please note that the name of the teacher is made up (since I couldn't remember or find the name of the teacher in the movie), she doesn't have much of an influence to the story. Once again, please excuse the bad "line breaks," I can't exactly do much about them, sorry!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own "Mr Peabody and Sherman" unfortunately...**

"So, today we are going to learn about Ancient Greece," the teacher started, her nasally voice echoing through the room. "Does anyone know about the Trojan War?"

Sherman's heart started pumping fast. ' _Please don't talk about it, please don't talk about it!_ ' his mind screamed, blocking out the bored voice from the teacher. He closed his eyes and tried to think happy thoughts, but each time, they shot straight back to the imagery of his reoccurring nightmare.

"Sherman!" the teacher yelled, catching Sherman's attention straight away, "are you listening?" she asked in softer voice.

"Y...yeah, sorry," he stuttered as he apologised.

"That's better," the teacher muttered. "As I was saying, the Trojan War doesn't have a specific date or year that it started or finished, in fact, no one really knows. There are three different years that people from Ancient Greek-"

' _Yeah, yeah, blah, blah_ ,' Penny thought, knowing fully about the Trojan War from her little adventure with Mr Peabody and Sherman, occurring just over a week ago. She glanced over towards Sherman and noticed something very peculiar about his body language. It seemed...different, almost tense or scared. His shoulders were raised slightly and they looked rigid, as though any movement made by him would result in disaster. _'I wonder what's wrong with Sherman...'_

The class continued on, the nasally teacher talking though the eerie silence. It seemed that no one was interested, or more to the fact, the teacher made them bored.

"DING!" the bell sounded, followed by the rush of students who were awaiting for the time that lunch would start. Penny breathed a sigh of relief, the boring class was FINALLY over. As she made her way over to the oak-wooden door that lead to the corridor outside the classroom, she noticed that Sherman was still sitting there, stiff and rigid in place, staring blankly to the empty white board.

Penny slowly shuffled her way towards Sherman, and crouched in front of him. "Sherman?" she asked quietly, making sure that the teacher didn't hear. "Hello?" she gently waved her hand in front of Sherman's face, at last grasping his attention. "Are you okay?" Penny asked slowly.

A faint cloud covered Sherman's iris', until he blinked, his eyes returning to their normal shade of orange-brown. "Yeah, I'm fine, just tired," he replied, a small fake smile etching at the edges of his mouth.

Penny took none of it, easily assuming that he was lying, but passed by it anyway. "It's lunch now, we should go," she stated whilst standing back up and brushing her skirt from crinkles.

"Okay."

 **(LINE BREAK)**

"That was the most boring history class ever, Ms Caribou was soooo boring!" Penny rolled her eyes dramatically, emphasising as much as she could.

"Oh, I definitely agree, I hated it!" Carl exclaimed with his arms flailing out from his sides, narrowly missing the legs of the table.

Meanwhile, Sherman sat with his shoulders slumped, staring at his uneaten sandwich. _'Why am I so scared? It's just a nightmare, it didn't really happen. But it could have happened, couldn't it?_ ' Sherman's mind was racing at a million miles per hour, his was heart beating faster than average and his face was as pale as a ghost.

"Are you sure you're okay Sherman?" Penny asked again, concern taking over her features as she reached over to place a gentle hand on his back. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Sherman said with a sigh, leaning his elbows onto the table and rested his chin onto his cupped hands. "I really am fine."

"Hmm...I don't believe you," Penny spoke quietly, "you look really pale."

"Trust me, I'm fine," a surge of anger raised in Sherman's voice.

"Maybe you should go to the nurse-"

"I'M FINE!" Sherman snapped. His voice echoed through the cafeteria, making the nearby students turn to face the redhead. Sherman stood from the table hastily and stormed out of the cafeteria, glaring at the students that looked at him, leaving them confused and somewhat afraid. He made his way into the library just a few doors down the corridor, and found a corner among the rows of books on shelves.

He let tears stream down his face, the images of Mr Peabody dying flooding into his mind as each particle fell from his eyes.

 **Well that was a tad sad, sorry about that. Hopefully there will be another chapter up tomorrow night (I'm Australian so I don't know what time it'll be up for you guys). Thank you for the reviews, follows AND favourites, it sure did bring a smile onto my face. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm back! Sorry about not keeping my promise, I'm very bad with uploading stories on time!**

 **In reply to the review from TheLordismyGod, I thank you first for the suggestion, although it doesn't particularly work since I'm writing this story on my iPad. Thank you though, I'll keep it in mind for future reference!**

 **Just so you know, this is the last part of this short story. Sorry about that!**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own the franchise.**

"How was school today, Sherman?" Peabody asked, breaking the silence in the elevator making its ascend to the high rise penthouse-apartment.

"Alright," Sherman muttered, staring at the floor of the elevator. How was he meant to tell Mr Peabody of the small 'incident' that happened today? How was he meant to tell Mr Peabody about his recent recurring nightmares?

' _A one word answer? He only ever does that when something is wrong,_ ' Peabody pondered. He decided to leave it until the elevator reached the apartment.

Once the elevator reached the top floor of the building, Peabody insisted on finding out what the issue was. "Is everything alright, Sherman?" he asked, his eyes showing emotions of concern, confusion and fear mixed into one.

Sherman, who was on his way to his bedroom, stopped for a moment, before muttering a small "yes, everything's fine," over his shoulder. Upon reaching his bedroom, Sherman slumped onto his bed, his face buried into the sheets.

"I wonder what's wrong with Sherman, he's never like this," Peabody whispered to himself, all the while looking at the contents in the pantry. "Aha, that's what I want," he said whilst grabbing an onion from a bag filled with them hidden behind jars and cans of various food items.

As Peabody began preparing dinner, Sherman shuffled his way out of his bedroom. Peabody glanced up at the orange-headed boy, confusion wracking features. Sherman sat onto the squishy couch in front of the TV with his shoulders slouched over, a somewhat tired and sad look on his face.

Once the basic part of their dinner had been completed, Peabody diverted his attention over to figuring out what's wrong with Sherman. He calmly made his way to where the boy was sitting, noticing the unusual body language of Sherman.

Sherman took no notice of Peabody walking into the area, his mind wrapped around his thoughts. He only noticed the white beagle when he sat down beside him. "I've noticed your strange behaviour lately," Peabody started softly, making Sherman snap out of his trance. "Are you absolutely sure there is nothing wrong?" he asked while looking over to the slumped over boy.

"Well..." Sherman began, not really knowing how to express what had been going on lately. "I...uhh..." he started biting his nails nervously, his eyes still shielded away from his fathers' concerned look.

Peabody scooted his way closer to Sherman, wrapping an arm around the boys' shoulders. "I promise I won't be mad or upset with you."

"I...I have been...uhh...having nightmares for the past few days," Sherman said quietly and slowly. "I haven't slept well and...umm...I've been tired."

Peabody nodded as he took in the information, still listening closely to what the boy had to say. "What have these nightmares been about?" he asked equally as quietly.

"They have been...uhh..." Sherman sighed before continuing. "They've been about the time you nearly died in Ancient Troy," his eyes started stinging with tears. "That's not the only thing though, they've also been about when Ms Grunion nearly took me away from you and when you were being dragged into that van away from me," a small tear started rolling down his face. "One time, they did actually take you away and...well...they did what they do to dogs...that bite," a sob escaped Sherman's mouth as he finished explaining.

Peabody looked at Sherman, and opened his mouth to start talking before Sherman cut him off.

"Today, the t...teacher started teaching us a...about the T...Trojan War," Sherman continued through sobs, as tears rolled down his face and over the already dried tear-stained marks from earlier in the day. "A...and I...I just...I just...couldn't," he whispered the last bit. He brought his hands up to his face and hastily tried to wipe away the tears.

"Sherman, you should have told me about this," Peabody started softly whilst rubbing Sherman's back comfortingly.

"I...I know, but I just...didn't want you to...to worry," Sherman looked into Peabody's emerald-green eyes, noticing his concern and fear almost instantly.

"Of course I worry about these things, you are far more important to me than any of my inventions or my knowledge," Peabody said, still rubbing Sherman's back. "Do you know why? Because if I lose you, I could never get you back," Peabody explained. "And I love you far more than anything else that I own or have."

Sherman wrapped his arms around Peabody, burying his face into the white fur. He was still crying. "I was just afraid because if you died or if you were taken away, I'd have no one. I don't want that to happen, not now..."

"Listen to me, Sherman," Peabody said slowly, gaining the attention of Sherman. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, you have nothing to worry about," he ran a paw through Sherman's hair. "I won't let that happen, not now, not ever. Trust me on that," Peabody said with a firm nod. He wiped away a lone tear on Sherman's face, before pulling him back into a hug.

"I love you, Mr Peabody," Sherman muttered through the fur of the beagle.

"Sherman?"

"Yes, Mr Peabody?" Sherman asked, pulling away from the hug and looking into Peabody's eyes.

"You don't have to call me 'Mr Peabody' anymore," Peabody smiled.

"Okay, dad," Sherman mirrored the smile, before continuing the hug.

"I love you, Sherman," Peabody quipped as he returned the hug.

After a few moments that the two sat on the couch, Peabody cleared his voice, pulling himself out of the hug. "I should continue making dinner," he stated with a small chuckle.

"Can I help?" Sherman asked, waiting for an answer as he watched Peabody walk off.

"Of course."

 **Thank you for reading this story. If you would like me to write another story, just leave a small prompt in the review section or pm me. I hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you!**


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